Spring Lock Down

 

March started out such a beautiful month.  Flowers were blooming..

big, bold, and beautiful.

 

 

The bottlebrush was fuller than it has ever been.  So full, I was worried the branches were gonna break from the weight of the blooms themselves.

Honey bees were buzzing in abundance.  They were besides themselves with so many choices that they couldn't decide where to go or how to long to stay when there.

Spring Break was so busy, too.  There was a carnival until 11pm the last day of school and a 5K run the Kid participated in and did well at the very next morning at 7am.

On the way to visit the Worrier for Spring Break, we stopped off at the Not the Worrier casa.  He is not family but the Planner has always considered him more than family and has been around longer than the Planner himself.  This man has the patience of  a saint, never raises his voice, and will explain a process in various different ways in order for the new learner to understand.  Taking the Kid fishing is right up his alley.  When they caught Big Bertha, a five plus year old catfish, they then skinned her and fried her up for dinner.

Once at the Worrier's casa, there were lightning struck trees to climb,

more gigantically old catfish to catch,

and the biggest one of all almost got away when the Kid dropped it back on to the bank,

and finally metal detectors to play with.  Mostly we found beer tabs and bullet casings.  Both by the bucket loads.  But under in a tree in the back field was an old sardine can with opener and an empty cartridge from an early 20's handgun.  The twist can opener was the kind that came on tuna cas way back in the day that had to be inserted and then twisted around to open the can.  It was retro cool.

Spring Break was going so well until inevitable happened, Covid Lockdown.  At first the Kid was excited, a whole extra week of vacation.  Then as the week became two and virtual learning came on full force, it was back to homeschool grind.  But worse.

During these first few weeks of Covid Lockdown, time slowly crawled by.  To keep ourselves entertained during the nonschool/nonwork hours another above ground garden bed was planted since the first was doing great.

The second bed was strictly for mustard green and swiss chard.  Wanting more vegetable variety but lacking more boards a recycled cardboard tube from the concrete piers was cut into a 12 section and filled with sand/dirt and zucchini.

Of course to keep the chickens at bay from scratching in the fresh dirt, a metal grate was laid across the top.  Only temporary, a long term plan is still in the development stage.

This wire grate highly agitated some of the hens, especially this barred rock.  She would stand on top and pace around the sides trying to get to the dirt everyday as soon as they were released from their coop.  If looks could kill, she would have pecked my eyes out already...

Two weeks into lock down and things were getting scary.  Stress was off the charts and exhibited in various fashions.  The doggo could be found trying to flip on her back to rub her back and sides.  She seemed to have developed some type of physical tick and constantly wanted to be scratched.  At least she looked happy when rubbing her snout across the grass, the sand, the bed, your boot...

The Planner has eye issues from constantly rubbing them, 

And I went into full on nesting mode.  More dead trees courtesy of Hurricane Harvey were removed and grapevine and green briar were drug out of the trees.  This simple project took close to three solid days as the grapevine and green briar wrap themselves around the branches making it difficult to remove.  Removal of trees and vines would hopefully allow for more grass to grow.

Storage boxes were scaled, sandblasted free of rust, holes cut out and new metal welded into place.

   

Needing 24 hours for the ospho to fully dry, they were primed the next and 72 hours laters painted.  Having been sitting here at Plan473 for over four years I was surprised at how little rust their was.  Yes, there was lots of surface rust but very little had developed into full on corrosive metal eating rust.  Two boxes for a total space of 16x40 and there was only five or six spots needing new metal.  Less than 2 square feet of metal.  Not bad.  Now the Storage Boxes have pox patches like the Work Box Pox.

 

I can say this honestly, the need to nest was becoming obsessive.  Every trip to the store became more and more desperate.  So desperate in fact the salvaged Hurricane Harvey refrigerator from a friend of a friends house was dug out of storage, cleaned, and prepped for usage.  Cleaning took a full day.  See all the bits in the first picture?  That is newspaper insulation from the trashed house.  Insulation was stuck in all possible crevices and had hardened to concrete from the rain.  The original owners only removed the food but left all food reside and sheetrock and insulation.  At least they were kind enough to leave the once only two month old baking soda box.

Nesting the fridge turned out to be a good thing.  The last Monday of March, the local grocer went into Covid safety measures.  

With limited hours of operation and limited supplies, customers would wait in line for close to an hour sometimes more only to enter the store and shop for what they had not what you wanted.  Meals for the week were planned as items were selected.  At this point there is still lots of fresh fruits and veggies along with frozen veggies. I am so glad I have a fridge in the Work Box to store all this fresh produce.  What a month it has been.  Wonder what next month holds?

Chicken Coop Repairs

Back in January during the Dirt+Chicken=Fertilizer grounds clean up day, it was noted the rotting status of the chicken run base boards.  

Being the coop is constantly under dirt and debris, bathed in water when in rains, and was not high quality weather boards to start, I would say fours years was an acceptable time.  Top boards were replaced and wire was reattached.  Good to go for another few years or so.

While at repairs, a new chicken feeder was made and the old one was breaking at the handle.  Nothing calls the ladies up like a new feed bucket!

New dirt to poop in, new baseboards to throw dirt on, and new bucket to stuff your head into.  Showing my chickens some love.

But Why Not Okra?

Almost three years ago to date, the Planner and the Kid planted a garden.  It was lovely dirt for cucumbers, squash, peppers, green beans, snap peas and okra.  But Why Okra was not to be.  Winds, lack of rain, poor soil, and gophers all lead to the quick failure of the garden.  

Since then a lot has happened and there just has not been the time nor the energy for another garden attempt.  Over the last several months, above ground gardens have been researched.  They are supposed to be better for weed/animal control, easier to manage moisture levels, and can be used for all varieties of plants.  Of course, they are supposed to be filled with peat moss and good quality compost dirt.  Yeah, right.  Like that's gonna happen here in sand country.

From a previous job the Planner held a couple years back there were still a few 2x6x12 and 2x10x12 boards remaining in the scrap pile.  Two 2x6x8 and 2x10x8 along with two 2x6x4 and 2x10x4 boards were measured and cut.  Four 2x4 stakes leftover from concrete pier forms were also dug out for corner posts.

The Kid was convinced if he stood on the 2x6x8 board, his weight would straight out the bow.  Keep eating child, you only weigh 60 lbs!

As the sun set behind the trees the last final board was secured in place.  

The next day, chicken wire was placed at the bottom to keep out the gophers.  Another more eco friendly options were to line the bottom of the box with small logs evenly size and length.  Gophers can't chew their way through the logs and overtime the logs breakdown into mulch to help against the water drainage issues.  However, when the logs breakdown, the gophers can get thru.  There are plenty of places for gophers to dig that is not in the garden.  Thank you, kindly.

A couple of buckets of "good" dirt scooped out from the Driveway Rodeo filled the boxes.  

Dirt was leveled out, pushed into corners, and grass knots and trash bits removed.

Day three of this project.  Day three!  Seriously thought this would have been a three hour project, not a three afternoon day project.  Alas, time goes so fast sometimes.

Planning ahead for chicken destruction, cattle panel was installed around three sides and then covered with bird netting.  On the front, a removable net gate secured the entire plot against chickens and hopefully birds.

Seeds were debated upon for time constraints, light needs, and other plant compatibility.  This bed will hose spinach in the middle, tomatoes on the south wall, green beans on the east wall, and cucumbers on the north wall.  And no, there will not be okra!  They take too much water and space for a 4x8 garden plot.  Maybe next time.  Maybe.

Here's hoping to a better yielding produce crop.

Rain Water Collection System Update #3

 Ah, the never ending task of completing the RWCS.  Back in November, the work box had half of the box plumbed for water collection but the project was never completed as materials were short.  With the rainy season upon us, no time like to present to finish the collection.  The back half downspouts were removed which was no easy task.  Extra large pipe wrench only striped the outside of the PVC cap and the the strap wrench wouldn't only loosed it about a nails width.

Once carefully cut into with a sawzaw, the cap itself then had to be pried off with a large screwdriver and a hammer.  Quite difficult to do when fitted in a corner standing on the top rung a ladder with your head wedged against the ceiling.

With the corners installed all that was left was the combination of the two middle spouts.  It was be our luck that the last of the passthru cutouts in  the floor would give the most grief.  The drill was dull, the wood seemed extra hard, and the holes didn't align on the underside.

Yes, you read correctly.  The holed didn't align.  See the dark line across top of the hole cutout?  That is the frame channel under the box.  Since there is no backing up, this misalignment would just have to rectified on the the underside.  In the famous words of Scarlett O'Hara "Why do today what can be put off until tomorrow".  Okay, that is not exactly what she said but that is what she should have said. It's funnier.

 

The safety cage was installed and welded into place.  And, yes it too will follow Scarletts words and be painted tomorrow.  Not tomorrow tomorrow.  But a tomorrow.

Downspout number two and three were combined to save space and eliminate the corner PVC issues.  Having a need to have full access to the open doors is a must for the Work Box.  There are pallets moved in and out weekly and at times the pallets are two wide meaning there is not an inch of room to spare when loading pallets into the box with the tractor.  With outside corner PVC pipes already gobbling up about 6" from the wall, combining and placing in front of the two adjoined boxes seemed the most logical.  

As it turns out tomorrow really was today.  Or maybe it was yesterday really was yesterday. Having all the downspouts complete inside the box and having already started on the water collection storage tanks under the box, today was the day to connect the boxes to the tanks.

To ensure an even flow of water collection, the tank ground was leveled out with a 2x6.  Filling in any holes as it was scrapped back and forth across the pad, the fresh fill was then stepped on with three sets of feet to press down and secure a solid base.

Not only did the front tank have to be level with the world, it then had to be leveled to the tank the back of the box, too.  If one tank was higher than the other, water would not even out between the two resulting in one tank alway having more water than the other affecting the pumping system.

Not wanting to restrict any water flow, two inch pvc pipes were used the whole way through the water collection system. The inlet the tank, however, was only an 1-5/8".  Opening the inlet to fit the two inch pipe made a huge mess.  Tiny little shards of pvc went everywhere with no ideas as to how the pvc ribbons will be collected from inside the tank itself.

A test pipe was fitted and almost dropped into the tank.  Push, push, twist, twist and stop!  The sample was left in place and taped closed to ward off any four legged critters that might decide living in a tank would be a perfect home.  

With a better understanding of the water line layout, the water pump stand was quickly built, welded into place and then primed.  The pump being used will not be the final pump as it is too small for a completes RWCS.  But with only two boxes worth of water to collect right now, the recycled pump from way back at the Water Management System days when we were collecting RO water castoff water.

Don't you wish you could squat for hours on end painting like the Kid still can?  

A connecting ditch twelve inches deep was dug from the back tank to the front tank.  

The south wall downspout was connected to the north wall and a t-union was installed for clean out purposes, future water inlet from the main house, etc...  Installing the four way pipe and ensure left and right was level while maintaining proper drop into the tank itself was a little frustrating.  There was a lot to manage in a tiny space.

 

From the pump a check valve was installed to keep the pump constantly primed.

Sometime during the week, the water pump platform was painted and an electric line installed.  With the pump primed, the tanks were back filled from the 3000 gallon storage tanks to max capacity and the whole system was tested.  Fully priming the pump took a few attempts but once the air bubbles were worked out, the pump flowed, the water float valves inside the tanks were adjusted to keep just a few inches of water at the bottom, and done.  The Work Shop Box water collection system is up and running.  Now for the rain....